No Fukushima at Oldbury

No to Fukushima at Shepperdine!

Friday, 30 July 2010

It is important that the cost of the Civil Nuclear Police at each of the new nuclear sites should be funded by the developers and not by the state---It is the developers that stand to profit from these sites and so policing should be considered as a legitimate business cost of nuclear.

Less risky forms of electricity production do not need this level of security.

The cost of keeping 24 armed police officers, at the current Oldbury site, must be significant.

Please note the comments from Inspector Mark Lester of the CNC at Oldbury in the article below which was published by the Thornbury Gazette.

Inspector Lester and his team do a fantastic job and I certainly appreciate all the effort they put in.

Having lived on Shepperdine Road for eight years I have always been a little concerned that living next to a nuclear power plant may lead to this---It is now interesting that Insp. Mark Lester is also concerned! What will happen if we get an even more prominent target for terrorists?

A DESERTED building near the possible site of a new nuclear power station is to be demolished because of fears about safety and national security.

A Prior Notification of Demolition has been made to South Gloucestershire Council for a property on Shepperdine Road, Oldbury.
The application has been made by Thornbury-based DLP Planning Ltd on behalf of German energy firm E.ON.

Last year E.ON bought hundreds of acres of land between Oldbury and Shepperdine in anticipation of building a new nuclear power station.

Since purchasing the land E.ON is now responsible for the upkeep of all buildings and has already renovated and let several properties.

However, a bungalow on Shepperdine Road has been declared unsafe by surveyors and a security risk by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Insp Mark Lester, operational unit commander for Oldbury, said: "Firstly these buildings are a danger to the public in that if they gained entry to the premises they would be in serious danger of injuring themselves.

"Not wishing to stereotype, but I can imagine youths being curious and with a sense of adventure taking a look at this derelict property and ending up injuring themselves.

"Secondly, this is an opportunity for criminal activity, and this and similar buildings have been used to secrete and store stolen property.

"Thirdly it is an opportunity for any potential terrorist to use and adapt this building as a base to carry out hostile reconnaissance."

DLP Planning said a suspended timber floor had collapsed within the bungalow onto the ground floor and that the building contains asbestos.

The company said: "To do nothing would leave the building to fall into an increasingly perilous state of repair."

The firm plans to demolish the bungalow between September and early October to avoid disruption to the local bat population.

It is a concern that the bungalow has not yet been demolished or refurbished and rented as Insp. Lester obviously considers this to be a terrorism risk.

There will also be significant risks on decommissioning when flasks of radioactive materials will be moved via road over a period of time.

On the www.shepperdineagainstnuclearenergy.blogspot.com site if you search Yemen and nuclear you can find a story of a US citizen who used to work in a couple of nuclear power plants who has been arrested in the Yemen on suspicion of terrorist involvement.

The new plants will be targets!

Could you send this to the relevent person at DECC for their comments.

1 comment:

Sp if they get permission to build this monster (and its a big IF) and all the residents of Shepperdine move out (since most dont want this on their doorstep) they will end up demolishing the empty properties they will have to buy up to protect the power station as no one else will want to live amongst the devastation! This will probably apply to the whole of Shepperdine, Oldbury Naite, Oldbury, Rockhampton, Hill to name but a few let alone Thornbury... with all these houses lying empty how will they protect the area from terrorists moving in?

We urge the government to consider the implications of rushing into a nuclear partnership at Shepperdine without doing proper due diligence on the potential new investors into the Horizon shell.
It should be offering solutions such as energy independence to the micro generators and not playing the whipping boy to trans national investors who decide to move their capital on a whim.